One of the striking aspects about the past weeks of early morning quiet time has been the degree to which the disciplines of reading the Bible and prayer journaling can work together. Reading a devotional and/or the Bible as a lead-in to journal time enriches the experience of both disciplines. It seems that every day either my devotional reading, the Bible passage that it cites, or both, provide some teaching or concept that resonates with me and that I can include as part of the prayer that I want to take to God in the journal. That something in my reading– and it may be just a word like “encourage,” can be a spark for freely speaking from the heart in my prayer journal.
And speaking of “speaking from the heart,” starting a prayer journal itself has helped me to just put myself out there to God, with less and less self-consciousness about how I am articulating my thoughts. I have often thought about the Psalms in the Bible and how much they exemplify the revelation of the heart to God, without filtering out what may be perceived as “good” or “bad,” and with faith that God knows what’s in the heart anyway. As I practice the discipline of keeping a prayer journal, I find that I am doing less filtering, and as a result, being more open to what God has in store for me during the day. But I still catch myself sometimes trying too hard to say the right thing — in other words, I need a lot more practice, but that’s what spiritual disciplines are all about. In the time ahead, I look forward to sharing other perspectives on spiritual growth as experienced from these practices.
Stumbling In the Dark and Turning Out the Light – Clay’s First Post
The Wrong Side of the Bed – Clay’s Second Post
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